ALBERT

Description: Background: The aim of this study was evaluate the late-onset repercussions of heart alterations of patients with systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) after a 13-year follow up. Methods: A historical prospective study was carried out involving the analysis of data from the charts of patients with a confirmed diagnosis of lupus in follow up since 1998. The 13-year evolution was systematically reviewed and tabulated to facilitate the interpretation of the data. Results: Forty-eight patient charts were analyzed. Mean patient age was 34.5 +/- 10.8 years at the time of diagnosis and 41.0 +/- 10.3 years at the time of the study (45 women and 3 men). Eight deaths occurred in the follow-up period (two due to heart problems). Among the alterations found on the complementary exams, 46.2% of cases demonstrated worsening at reevaluation and four patients required a heart catheterization. In these cases, coronary angioplasty was performed due to the severity of the obstructions and one case required a further catheterization, culminating in the need for surgical myocardial revascularization. Conclusion: The analysis demonstrated progressive heart impairment, with high rates of alterations on conventional complementary exams, including the need for angioplasty or revascularization surgery in four patients. These findings indicate the need for rigorous cardiac follow up in patients with systemic lupus erythematosus.

Description: This study focuses on the sedimentary fill of basin 4, the termination of the Brazos-Trinity minibasin slope system in the northwestern Gulf of Mexico. Results from multistratigraphic analyses of 15 giant piston cores provided (1) important information regarding the nature (hemipelagic versus gravity-induced mud and sand deposits) and the timing of the sedimentary fill; (2) some key chronostratigraphic constraints for the evolution of this system; and (3) strong links between well-known cycles of sea level change to clearly imaged deposits in the fill of basin 4. Gravity-flow–induced sedimentation in basin 4 occurred and increased in importance during the stepwise sea level regression that developed between 115 and 15 ka and clearly ceased just prior to the meltwater spike in the Gulf of Mexico dated at about 14 ka. The onset of gravity-induced deposition in basin 4 is dated at marine isotope stage (MIS) 5d (∼115 ka). This finding implies that sandy turbidity currents reached this distal setting as a consequence of a higher frequency sea level fall within a time of general high sea level (MIS 5). An interval of hemipelagic sedimentation lasting from 90 to 45 ka illustrates cessation of gravity-induced deposits in basin 4. Turbidite sandy deposits resumed in mid-MIS 3 and increased toward MIS 2 (approximately from 30 to 15 ka). The largest proportion of reservoir-grade sandy sediment was deposited during the maximum sea level lowstand of the last glacial maximum, consistent with the prevailing view of sequence-stratigraphic models for deep-water deposition. Gianni Mallarino received his B.S. degree and M.S. degree equivalent from the University of Palermo and his Ph.D. from the University of Naples. His Ph.D. focused on Jurassic drowned carbonate platforms. After that, Gianni spent 2 years at Rice University as a postdoctorate researcher working on late Quaternary deep-water systems. Currently, he works for PanTerra, a geoconsulting company based in the Netherlands. Rick T. Beaubouef earned a Ph.D. in geology from the University of Houston in 1992. Since then, he has worked as a geologist for ExxonMobil. He is currently the ExxonMobil stratigraphy coordinator. In this role, he is responsible for stewardship and oversight of stratigraphy-related activities in the range of exploration, development, production, research, and training programs on a global basis. André W. Droxler received his master's degree equivalent from University of Neuchâtel (Switzerland) and pursued his Ph.D. at the Rosenstiel School of Marine and Atmospheric Science, University of Miami (Florida). Since 1987, he has been a faculty member at Rice University. His research has focused on carbonate and mixed siliciclastic-carbonate deposits on slopes and basins surrounding carbonate platforms, in terms of processes, evolution, and paleoceanographic and climatic records. Vitor Abreu has a Ph.D. from Rice University and is currently working for ExxonMobil. Vitor is an adjunct professor at Rice University and the University of Houston and a research councilor of SEPM. He has published several papers and has given numerous talks and seminars. Vitor was the recipient of the Jules Braunstein Memorial Award (best poster presentation, 2002 AAPG Annual Meeting). Laurent Labeyrie earned his Ph.D. from the University of Paris. His first professorship was at the University Paris Sud-Orsay, followed by the University of Versailles St. Quentin and, currently, at the Laboratoire des Sciences du Climat et de l'Environnement in Gif/Yvette, France. Laurent Labeyrie was trained as a physicist and geochemist at the University of Paris. He is currently a faculty at University of Versailles St. Quentin, where he codirects the Master School on Climate Change and Sustainable Development. His specialties are application of physics and geochemistry to paleoclimatology and paleoceanography, including both observational and modeling aspects.

Description: Sequence stratigraphy has been applied from reservoir to continental scales, providing a scale-independent model for predicting the spatial arrangement of depositional elements. We examine experimental strata deposited in the Experimental EarthScape facility at St. Anthony Falls Laboratory, focusing on stratigraphic surfaces defined by discordant contact geometries, surfaces analogous to those delineated in the original work on seismic sequence stratigraphy. In this controlled setting, we directly evaluate critical sequence-stratigraphic issues, such as stratigraphic horizon development and time significance, as well as the internal geometry and migration of the bounded strata against the known boundary conditions and depositional history. Four key stratigraphic disconformities defined by marine downlap, marine onlap, fluvial erosion, and fluvial onlap are mapped and vary greatly in their relative degree of time transgression. Marine onlap and downlap contacts closely parallel topographic surfaces (time surfaces) and, prior to burial, approximate the instantaneous offshore topography. These stratal-bounding surfaces are also robust stratigraphic signals of relative base-level fall and rise, respectively. Marine onlap surfaces are of special interest. They tend to be the best preserved discordance, where widespread, allogenic-based onlap surfaces subdivide otherwise amalgamated depositional cycles amidst cryptic stacks of marine foresets; however, local, autogenic-based marine onlap discordances are present throughout the fill. A critical distinguishing feature of allogenic onlap is the greater lateral persistence of the discordance. Surfaces defined by subaerial erosional truncation and fluvial onlap do not have geomorphic equivalence because channel processes continually modify the surface as the stratigraphic horizons are forming. Hence, they are strongly time transgressive. Last, the stacking arrangement of the preserved bounded strata is found to be a good time-averaged representation of the mass-balance history. John M. Martin is presently at ExxonMobil Upstream Research Company, where his research interests are in geomorphology and the details of stratigraphic accumulation from a variety of depositional environments. He earned his Ph.D. from the University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, where much of his work was centered at St. Anthony Falls Laboratory. Chris Paola is a professor in the Department of Geology and Geophysics, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, and does research at St. Anthony Falls Laboratory. His research interests are in physical sedimentary geology and stratigraphy, especially the dynamics of channelized systems. He received his B.S. degree in environmental geology from Lehigh University, his M.S. degree in applied sedimentology from the University of Reading, and his D.S. degree in marine geology from Massachusetts Institute of Technology/Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution Joint Program in Oceanography. Vitor Abreu received his Ph.D. from Rice University and is presently an ExxonMobil stratigraphy coordinator. He is also an adjunct professor at Rice University, teaching sequence stratigraphy and has published several articles and given numerous talks and seminars within industry and academia. He was the recipient of the Jules Braunstein Memorial Award (2002 AAPG Annual Meeting) and is currently an AAPG distinguished instructor. Jack E. Neal received his B.S. degree from the University of Tulsa and his Ph.D. from Rice University. His interests are seismic and sequence stratigraphy, structure-stratigraphic interaction, paleoclimate, and hydrocarbon systems. He has published on northwestern Europe sequence stratigraphy, graphic correlation, and lacustrine sequence stratigraphy. He has worked globally in research, exploration, development, and production assignments with Exxon and ExxonMobil since 1994. Ben Sheets is an assistant professor of marine geology and geophysics in the School of Oceanography at the University of Washington, Seattle. He earned his B.A. degree from Carleton College and his Ph.D. from the University of Minnesota, Minneapolis. His research involves processes, geomorphology, and stratigraphy in a variety of coastal and submarine sedimentary systems.